Purpose: :
We are developing a diabetic retinopathy (DR) quality of life (QoL) item bank as a disease-specific module of the Eye-tem Bank and we provide a preliminary psychometric report of the DR instrument.

Results: :
To date, 366 DR/DME patients have completed the pilot items (median age, 62 yrs; range 22-88 yrs) in an average of 52 minutes. Most patients were male (n=253, 69%), not working (n=260, 71%) and had previous laser treatment (n=282, 77%). Of the 366 participants, 199 (54%) had no VI, 77 (21%) had mild VI, 49 (13%) had moderate VI and 24 (7%) had severe VI. Across the 9 QoL domains, only 28 items (8.9%) displayed misfit and only 4 items (1.3%) showed DIF for age or gender. However, the Convenience domain showed evidence of multidimensionality (1st contrast = 4.0 eigenvalues and 5.7%) and 5 domains (Visual symptoms, Ocular surface symptoms, Mobility, Social, Economic) had borderline precision (PSI≤2.0). The average measurement range across the 9 QoL domains was 2.46 logits.

Conclusions: :
The 9 QoL domains and 314 items in the DR module of the Eye-tem Bank displayed promising psychometric properties. A larger sample covering the breadth of this disease is required to fully evaluate this item bank.